By Cassi Feldman

WHEN JEFF ADACHI toppled Kimiko Burton this March in the San Francisco public defender's race, staffers in the office probably thought they could relax. At last the nasty drama that gripped the department and divided its 80 attorneys might fade.

But that hasn't happened.

Weeks into the awkward 10-month transition between Adachi's election and his swearing in, staff turnover remains high, caseloads continue to increase, and the office mood is decidedly sour. Even worse, some say, Burton doesn't seem to care.

Case in point: At an April 30 Board of Supervisors budget hearing, both Burton and Adachi were asked to weigh in on whether the department could absorb a 10 percent budget cut, which would mean 13 positions might be eliminated.

Approximately seven positions have already been lost through attrition, and the possibility of even more cuts outraged Adachi. "There is no way that we can do the job that we must do if the proposed budget cuts are adopted," he told the committee. "The caseloads now are overwhelming, are crushing."

Burton, however, doesn't see it that way. "The Public Defender's Office is currently not in crisis," she said. "As a whole, attorneys are not complaining." And though she acknowledged that cuts could eventually be a problem, she sounded fairly calm about the potential loss in staff. At one point, Sup. Aaron Peskin even prompted her to ask for more money.

"I was surprised she didn't fight more for those positions," Sup. Jake McGoldrick said. "I don't think she really felt that the workload was too heavy."

Burton also didn't seem to appreciate seeing approximately 10 members of her staff, many of whom supported Adachi, at the hearing. "They didn't have permission to leave, and it wasn't part of their job," she told legal newspaper the Recorder.

The morning after the hearing most of those attorneys received letters in their mailboxes informing them they'd been docked a half day of vacation time for hours spent at the hearing. Even former public defender Jeff Brown, who switched his endorsement from Adachi to Burton during the campaign, found this hard to swallow. "The issue before the committee was serious business, involving reduction of staff that took years of fighting to build," he wrote in a May 17 letter to the Recorder. "Theirs were acts of conscience."

Burton is out of town and did not return calls by press time.

"I think she's still pissed," deputy public defender Craig Peters said, referring to her recent loss at the ballot box.

Burton, daughter of state senator John Burton, was appointed by Mayor Willie Brown early last year. That angered some department staffers, who considered Jeff Adachi, then chief attorney, the better pick. The ensuing race tested the strength of the Brown-Burton political machine (see "Kimiko's Burden," 1/30/02). Burton used her father's influence to raise more than a million dollars, outspending Adachi by a ratio of four to one. But money couldn't stop Adachi's fight-the-power campaign; he trounced her by a 10-point margin.

Rather than gracefully accept defeat, some staffers say, Burton is taking her frustration out on them. "Part of being a good politician is learning to stand up when you're knocked down," Peters said. "That hasn't really panned out."

Yet others say Adachi is also taking swipes. Chief attorney Randall Martin told us the attorneys at the hearing "were encouraged to be there to disrupt the stability of the office and the morale of the office." While Martin doesn't mind a challenge to authority, he said, "this was meant to breed disrespect for the outgoing administration."

The attorneys dispute this notion. They say the department is in danger of failing in its mission to provide legal representation for the city's indigent. If the proposed increase in law enforcement personnel is approved, attorneys' caseloads will likely continue to rise. "We have an obligation to our clients," Peters said. "If I'm a private attorney, at some point I just can't handle more cases. It's no different for us."

Adachi agrees. Knowing he'll take over in January – long after the budget has been signed off on – he isn't planning on spending the summer in the sun. He said he has repeatedly tried to meet with Burton to discuss the transition but she has refused.